Happy New Year 2025 — David Taylor - Master Jeweller

The first sunrise of 2025, south of Ellis Beach.

Happy New Year everyone. My world for the past 6 months has been very different so here is a bit of what has been going on and what I plan to do.

Let me use the Octopus Tree in Barron Gorge to explain a bit how I feel as I am getting “old”. Now even going to sugar coat it anymore with “older”.

There is a rock that is suspended in the roots of the Octopus Tree as they have grown around it. I am sure that rock had every intention of rolling down the hillside but Mother Nature had other ideas.

Rock in the base of the Octopus Tree…still. 29/12/2024

I feel like that rock represents my life as a jeweller, after over 40 years of doing the same thing everything around me is growing/changing….. but I am stuck. I love what I do but wonder if there is more, especially after COVID well and truly taught me that jewellers are not essential to life…nor society.

So for the past 6 months I have been studying something totally different full time. During that period I let none of my family know that I was studying. I am not sure why I did not tell anyone but it soon became a bit of a game for me….when would someone notice that I was not at work as much?

A study camp in the bush mid October 2024.

Time is running out for me to explore things in my life. It was a lot of fun to study formally as I had a great lecturer and class mates. It did however reinforce a belief I have held for a very long time that there is a big disconnect between formal institutional/government training and the commercial world.

When I was an apprentice jeweller over, 40 years ago, we had a period of each year that we left our workplace, flew to Kangaroo Point in Brisbane and did formal study at TAFE. They called it block release training and we did it for the first 3 years of a 4 year apprenticeship. TAFE was nothing like my work as an apprentice jeweller! It was boarder line impractical.

I was amazed how far away from the actual commercial work environment the formal training was! Working in the government might be different, but the training I did over 40 years ago and also in 2024 were both a long way away from the reality of the workplace.

Forgot my helmet lock….should be save to leave here!

Full time studying and still running the business meant that getting to the bush has been very difficult to do for the the second half of 2024……except for good old nearby Barron Gorge. When I headed into the gorge for the first time after finishing my study, I had forgotten a lot of my system for walking in the rainforest and taking photos.

I even forgot my helmet lock so had to carry it into the rainforest. Once up on the hillside I left it safely at the base of Dragon Falls and continued on.

My goal on that day was to get to Rainbow Falls to swim at its base. We have had some recent rain so the water was flowing quite strongly and it was very hot and humid.

On the way up the hillside I met this butterfly that looked how I felt….tired and worn out. I think it was dying as it moved very little, let me get very close and had part of a wing missing.

Unlike last year, the water was not roaring down the hillside this December but there was a steady water flow at Curtain Falls. Being back in the rainforest was lovely.

There was new life everywhere I looked on the hillside. Mostly wait a while and Gympie Gympie! Not much colour other than green ……so when you see it you have to take a photo of it.

By the time I got to Rainbow Falls it was show time. If there is water flowing and sunshine at about 2 pm, a rainbow arcs across the pool at the base of the waterfall. It was time to get the sweat drenched clothes off and in for a swim under a rainbow.

Getting ready for new places in 2025

Pied Currawong at Millaa Millaa lookout keeping a close eye on me, 27/12/2024.

Fast forward to late December and the full-time study was well behind me, I had caught up with most of my jewellery work and Himi Chan is almost complete and ready for the adventures to come in 2025. It is taking much longer than I thought.

My wife is watching me very intently (like this Pied Currawong above) as I prepare the bike and myself for travels to come. I have upgraded the bash plate, added hand and lower engine guards. I also upgraded the radiator guard from plastic to aluminium.

Cleaning Himi Chan after a trial ride to Mt Garnet.

I still have to add the larger screen to reduce the buffering on the highway. The last trial ride was up to Wurruma Swamp at Mt Garnet and with dirt roads now wet. Those road biased tyres definitely need to be replaced with more dirt suited rubber in the next few weeks.

For luggage I have decided to go with saddle bags and have almost sorted out the size I need. I want to carry as little gear as possible in order to retain the bikes ability to travel off road.

So I am not sure how much I will be posting in 2025 but Himi certainly is allowing me to go places I could not previously and using a lot less money to get there. I just hop on the bike and head off to places like the beach up to Port Douglas and sit and enjoy. That tree was washed down the hillside to the ocean by the rains that followed Jasper.

Next trial trip is to visit a waterfall outside Herberton for the first time. Have a good one in 2025!